They all can't be "easy" runs.

7.75 Mi. Hood route to Legacy Trail over SWOM Bridge and back. 8 a.m. start. Then we finalized plans for our snowboard trip to Salt Lake next week. Super stoked about getting these guys in snow.

6 am start. 4 up. 8x100m+ grass sprints with 100m+ recoveries. 2 down.

You know how when you have a job and you want to go on vacation and your workload really seems to pile up right before you leave?

I hate it when that happens.

7.75 Miles. Hood route to legacy Trail over SWOM Bridge and back. 5:45 am start. I took advantage of the crisp air this morning and moved at a pretty good pace. I was also running on good feelings left over from boy #1's soccer practice last night. He had a really good practice. It's amazing how remembering moments like that can get you moving. 

6:30 pm. Ran around Islandwalk and got lost with boy #2. 3.7 miles.

3.5 miles. Hood route. 6am start. 6 days to Utah.

3.5 miles. Hood route. 6 am start. Hot. It felt really smooth, but then again I haven't run in 5 days. So I had some car trouble last week on top of all the work stuff, and travel to weekend soccer tournament, blah blah blah. I had to get a new alternator. I'm leaving town tomorrow, and now my car won't start again.

In happier news, happy birthday to my dad!

Am: 7.75 Mi. Hood route to Legacy Trail over SWOM bridge and back 6:30 a.m. start 63 degrees.

Pm: TPA - SLC. Stoked.

Met up with my brother in SLC. Then we got snowboard equipment, groceries, settled in our place in Midway. The kids are flipping out about snow, icicles, and ice.

1st day snowboarding for the kids. Brighton. We got them lessons for the day. They looked like they were doing very well. The instructors were great. I spent the day on the blues and greens with my brother. At about 3ish, the instructor released the boys to do a green run with us. The moment I've been waiting for! It was magic, for one run. All four of us, coasting through some really scenic stuff! Near the end of the run John went down hard. Long story short, 2.5 hours later, he walked out of the cottonwood heights walk in clinic with a cast on his arm. Devastated. His snowboard trip is over. I can't risk him further hurting his arm.

So now, my wife and I are scrambling for plan 2. Since we prepaid for lift tickets for 3 more days, i am for sure going snowboarding with tommy and my brother.

But what does my wife do with a 12 year old boy who is really depressed about not being able to snowboard in Salt Lake City area? We are really limited from activities where he might fall.

I'm putting it out to the fastrunningblog for help. How can we make this a fun trip for this kid?

.... The continuing story of tom k's Park City family vacation..... Snowboarding in Park City with my brother and boy #1 today. Boy #2 is still pretty bummed out. Spouse and boy #2 toured the Olympic sruff in Park City and a couple of other things. Boy #1 ia very frustrated he doesn't have this snowboard thing wired yet. It is day 2, after all! It's going to take more than 2 days, kid.

5.6 miles in Midway, Utah. 7 am start. 27 degrees. I HAD to do a run here to see what all the fuss is about. How is this different than home?

Elevation - I didn't notice it that much during the run, to be honest.

Hills - Those we really noticeable and I didn't even run a hilly route.

Dry air - super obvious. I got back "home" and started wheeze-coughing for a few minutes.

Wildlife - I saw 3 deer and a flock of geese. That was crazy. People - I got honked at by a dude driving a range rover.

Temps - It was cold, by human standards. I had gloves, hat, and a long sleeve shirt, but I ran in shorts.

I guess I should have run a trail, or in snow, or something more Utah-ey, bu this will have to do.

Then we went to Soldier Hollow, the biathlon Olympic Village. And we found out that the tubing in snow is out. We missed it by one day. But the kids made a snowman, so that was cool. We also missed the Ice Castles by one day. We also wanted to swim in the 96-degree water at the Homestead Crater in Midway, but we found the scheduling to be too complicated / limiting. Plus now that Johnny has a broken arm, he couldn't go anyway.

Tommy, Andy, and I finished the day by Night snowboarding in Brighton. As soon as the sun got behind the mountain the temperature dropped like crazy. Tommy was so frustrated by this point they told me he hated snowboarding.

This trip is going great.

We salvaged the Utah vacation today!

Back at Park City for snowboarding for just me and Tommy. Spouse took Johnny and Andy to the airport so Andy could fly home. Then she took Johnny on a snowmobile tour that they both came back totally fired up about. I mean, really excited. It was good that he had something like this, since snowboarding is out for him.

Something clicked for Tommy on the slopes today. In less than 24 hours we have gone from hating snowboarding to wanting to move to Utah. He was pretty proud of the fact that we made it from one side of Park City all the way to the other side of the resort in one day by just snowboarding down and taking lifts up. And to end the day by snowboarding across the bridge downtown with his hands in the air and yelling was pretty huge!

Tom K's vacation report. Last day. We fly out super early tomorrow.

Spouse took Johnny hiking for an extended period of time. Then they went to Donut Falls. And Johnny got to slide down a big ice shoot for like 30 yards. The pictures look really cool.

Tommy and I went back to Park City for our last day of snowboarding. This is day five for him. So I spent the entire day chasing him down the mountain and barely keeping up. I mean, he's got it. We went on some great runs. He had 6 falls, total, for the day. Earlier this week, he had 8 falls on one run. 

SLC - TPA. 6 am. What a vacation. The only thing my kids missed on this trip was snowfall! I wish they could have seen that. The snow report says they got 4" snow Thursday night. We missed it by one day.

Back to the soup. Ah, sweet humidity, how I've missed you! I'm glad I don't go back to work until Monday. The time zone thing really has me twisted. We'll see about running Friday, I guess. 

4 on the trails. 10 a.m. start. 67 degrees and humid. It's been a while so I wanted to take it easy today to see where I'm at. Snowboarding tweaks you in some unusual places. I'm really feeling it on the outside of the hip and on the groin side. The action of pushing off back to the lift with one foot strapped in a snowboard is not good for runners I think.

3.5 miles. Hood route. 7:30 pm start. Now that vacation is over, I can re-focus on running maybe. Starting up a new plan.

7.75 miles. Hood route to Legacy Trail over SWOM Bridge and back. 6 am start. 67 degrees. So end of March seems like a good time to put together a race plan for the year. Holy Procrastinating, Batman! 

4/27/19 - Gator Wilderness 10k in Punta Gorda

9/29/19 - Nebraska Marathon

11/2/19 - Revel Mt. Lemmon Marathon. 

I'm not signed up for anything right now, which is why I have lost some motivation, I think. I may do both, or just one of the marathons. We will see. 

5.5 miles. Hood route. 6 am start. 70 degrees.

6 am start. 2.0 miles. hood route to soccer fields. 0.5 miles home. bathroom stop. 0.5 miles to soccer fields. (8) x 100M+ sprints, with active recoveries. 0.5 miles home.

I totally didn't feel like running. I really didn't feel like sprinting, especially after the bathroom stop. But I forced the issue. And I'm glad I did. I'm really starting to enjoy these short grass sprints. 

5.5 miles. hood route. 6 am start. a bit cooler out this morning. 

5.5 miles. hood route. 6 am start. the weather has been amazing lately. nice cool temps. 

12.9 miles. Hood route to legacy trail to Venice Avenue and back. 7 am start. Steady pace. Nothing crazy. No camelbak.

Then went to a recreational league soccer game (friends of my sons). Then went to the Venice barbeque festival, where I played some corn toss, listened to some blue grass, and made some very bad food choices. Pulled Pork Nachos is not health food. 

3.5 miles. hood route 9 pm.